cloak

UK/kləʊk/US/kloʊk/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,786 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: cloaks

A cloak is a loose sleeveless outer garment hung from the shoulders. A dark cloak, throw on a cloak, a cloak and hood.

The figurative use is common, so a cloak of secrecy hides what is under it, and cloak-and-dagger means the world of spies. The Latin behind it means a bell, from the shape it makes when hanging.

Definitions of cloak

1nouncloakA loose sleeveless outer garment hung from the shoulders.C1
“The traveller wrapped his cloak around his shoulders against the cold wind.”

cloak is a garment.

Remember it

The old Latin clocca is a bell — the same bell that became the clock, back when a clock was a bell that rang the hour. A cloak hangs from the shoulders in the shape of a bell.

hooks ontobell clock

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin clocca means a bell, from the shape a hanging cloak makes.

Proto-Celtic
*klokkos
Medieval Latin
clocca — travelers' cape, literally “a bell”, so called from the garment’s bell-like shape
fro-nor
cloque — travelling cloak
Middle English
cloke
English, today
cloak

From Middle English cloke, from fro-nor cloque (“travelling cloak”), from Medieval Latin clocca (“travelers' cape, literally “a bell”, so called from the garment’s bell-like shape”), of cel - origin, from Proto-Celtic klokkos, ultimately imitative of the sound. a doublet of cloche and clock.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

cloak in the wild

Fictional cloaking devices have been used as plot devices in various media for many years.
Cloaking device
However, over the entire spectrum, a cloaked object scatters more than an uncloaked object.
Cloaking device
People in many different societies may wear cloaks.
Cloak
Nymphalis antiopa, known as the mourning cloak in North America and the Camberwell beauty in Britain, is a large butterfly native to Eurasia and North America.
Nymphalis antiopa
For white tie, men's opera cloaks are frequently worn with a walking stick and top hat or opera hat.
Opera cloak

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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